Daniel Edward Moore (3 poems)
Wisteria’s Throne
Who cares, really,
if tomorrow’s prepared
for earth’s brash articulation
of leaves into theories.
Laura’s chosen to
sift & sew memory’s
most precious seeds,
clearing a space for
Wisteria’s throne,
where the future unfurls
it long purple robe with
a hem of light and water.
I am the gardener,
sentinel of the sky,
defender of
all that remains.
Last Adolescent Wedding Anniversary
At 17, here we are,
citizens from the reckless years
when morning found
the light half dead,
darkness weeping
in both our mouths,
like the anchor fighting the sea.
Remember the words,
land on me, as if being a bird
was safe, remember
watching passion rise,
like a monster’s head
by the anchor’s chain,
wearing a crown
of barnacles bright,
the best the sea could do?
That’s what the next 20 years are for
said the shore to me.
Future Thrower
I write fire.
Ash uses me
to prove how cold
the world once was
before rock & wood
grew bored with ice
& I was struck
in a brutal way
by a lesser form
of uncivilized faith
content with blood
on cold cave walls
rehearsing our
quick disappearance.
Difference of
opinion or not.
Does it all boil
down to a season
of thaw no calendar
had on the wall?
If children survive
to hate the ghosts
we will soon become,
will fairy tales
without parents
in flames ever be
heard before bed?
Difference of
opinion or not.
Silence threw gas
on tiny dreams
already black as coal.
Daniel Edward Moore lives in Washington on Whidbey Island with the poet, Laura Coe Moore.
His poems are forthcoming in Weber Review, Levee Magazine,
Cultural Weekly, Tule Review, Pangolin Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Poetry South and Nixes Mate Review.
His chapbook "Boys," is forthcoming from Duck Lake Books in December 2019.
His first book, "Waxing the Dents," was a finalist for the Brick Road Poetry Book
Prize and will be released in February 2020.
His work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net.
Visit him at Danieledwardmoore.com.